In Photo: President Aquino hands over the command saber to the 56th Army commander, Maj. Gen. Hernando Iriberri (left). The command saber was returned to the President by Lt. Gen. Noel Coballes, former Army commander, during change of command ceremony at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, on Friday.
THE newly installed Army commander, Maj. Gen. Hernando Iriberri, vowed on Friday to prioritize the transformation of the Army into a credible fighting force and the pursuit of the counterinsurgency plan Internal Peace and Security Plan Bayanihan.
Iriberri, a protégé of Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, said the organization would continue to “build up” from the Army Transformation Road map (ATR) and the IPSP Bayanihan under his term.
“While we have made dramatic progress in both pursuits, there is much left to be done in our journey toward achieving our vision of a world class Army,” he said during his installation as the 56th chief of the Army.
“There is much more we can do to translate our strategy into operational terms, to align all our units to our strategy and to make strategy execution the job of every officer and soldier,” he added.
Iriberri, a member of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1983, succeeded Lt. Gen. Noel Coballes as chief of the Army as the latter reached the mandatory retirement age of 56.
The new Army chief edged out his former commander and a more senior officer for the post, the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) chief, Lt. Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, member of PMA Class of 1981.
Before Catapang assumed command of Nolcom in July 2013, he led the Army’s 7th Infantry “Kaugnay” Division, the post that was inherited by Iriberri.
Until his appointment as Army commander, Iriberri was reporting to the man he beat for the position of Army chief, as the 7ID was under the direct operational supervision of Catapang, being the Nolcom chief.
During his assumption of command attended by President Aquino on Friday, the new Army chief said that it “never dawned” on him that he would lead the more than 80,000-strong Army.
Iriberri’s rise in the military hierarchy was meteoric—from being the senior military assistant of Gazmin, he was named commander of the 503rd Infantry Brigade, which he held only for months before he was named division commander, a post that he occupied for seven months on his way to becoming the Army chief.
In his assumption speech, Iriberri thanked several retired and active officers, including Gazmin, who he said molded him into a military leader.
Aside from the Army transformation program and IPSP Bayanihan, Iriberri said he would enhance the interoperability of the Army with other agencies and foreign militaries and turn the Army into a decisive force.
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